There are some very good dentists. I know a few. Most do not call themselves holistic. They do care for the wellbeing of their patients, and base their treatments on sound, well published science. None of these practitioners do implants, fluoride ‘treatments’, root canals or amalgam fillings. None inject botulinum to puff up your lips. All have very strict protocols for replacing amalgam, which extends far beyond just using a rubber dam. They rely on sound, surgical technique to remove dead root canaled teeth. They include treatment of cavitations and neural medicine in their protocols. I am happy to give private recommendations but be prepared for a long wait till an appointment is available.
I have never called myself a wholistic or holistic dentist. To be honest I have no idea what the term means. I do understand the dictionary meaning of these words but, in relation to dental practice, it seems to imply that the dentist works along the lines just described. In Australia in the early 90s, a small group of dentists and doctors started challenging the trade organizations (dental associations) about the dangers of mercury from amalgam. We formed a new group called the Australasian Society of Oral Medicine and Toxicology and aligned closely with IAOMAT. As expected, we were met by an avalanche of bad publicity from the dental organizations. They had never been challenged in this way before. It did get the attention of many other dentists though. They also started noticing how busy we were compared to them. So began a ‘whole’ lot of dentists jumping on the ‘holistic’ bandwagon. A few were excellent. Most at least stopped using amalgam. They thought this was all that was needed to differentiate themselves from more traditional dentists! See How to Choose a Dentist.
Many created surgeries with awesome names like Marvelous, Unique, Painless, Zen Dental, and of course the name of their city with holistic after it. Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, and possibly Back’A Bourke holistic. Some associated their practices with oriental religious beliefs. Some discovered nutrition. Some just hung the new name on their door and carried on regardless. They attract lots of people who are hoping to be treated more wholistically.
No, I am not just having a little bitch session. I’m having a BIG bitch session!
It’s time to be discerning.
There are many dentists who are just regular straight dentists and who are not ‘holistic’. Most genuinely care for the wellbeing of their patients. They rely on the treatment approaches they learnt at universities. (The teaching that dentists get at university is sadly lacking in science.) They are good people, who really are trying to do the best for their patients. If you don’t know something, then you just don’t know, and you can’t be blamed for at least doing your best. I was one of these dentists for the first 13 years of my career. I did not know.
If on the other hand, you do know, but choose to hide that knowledge behind a holistic name tag, to create a bigger income – well that’s where it gets a bit ugly. You’ll find that most of the ‘holistic’ dentists are still doing root canals, are still poisoning their patients with topical fluoride every 6 months and have jumped head long into placing as many implants as possible. In other words, they are just doing what all other dentists are doing but claiming to do it better. There is no such thing as a good root canal, even if it is done ‘competently by traditional dental standards’ by a ‘holistic’ endodontist. There is no such thing as a holistic endodontist. All titanium implants spread titanium through your body and act as EMF antenna. Safe amalgam removal requires much more than just the use a rubber dam only. Fluoride is a poison no matter how clinically it is administered or how persuasive the false claim that it will reduce the decay in your teeth.
If you do want to choose a holistic dentist, do your research first. Look them up on the web and see what services they provide and what they say about some of these practices that I am talking about. There is only one that I have found, who states clearly on his website the services not provided: amalgam fillings, root canals, implants, fluoride. He’s one of the good ones. Most holistic dentists have lots of smooth talking reasons why they do what they do. Most sound extremely reasonable and smile while presenting their arguements.
I had a very busy practice when I was working. I was booked ahead for about 3 – 4 months, most of the time. We used to set aside 2 hours in the day for emergencies, and rarely had the time for a cup of coffee. Had I done ‘Fluoride Treatments’ on all my patients every 6 months, as prescribed by ‘established good dental practice’, I would have earnt an extra $50,000 per year, which would have cost me about $2,000/ year, for a procedure that the dental nurse would have done for me, and . (That was twenty years ago.)
Hundreds of millions of dollars may be wasted annually on children’s fluoride treatments by dentists. Typically given once or twice a year at routine checkups, the treatments do nothing to reduce cavities in kids, says a study of insurance records.
Journal of Public Health Dentistry here
When I stopped doing root canals (1991), I found that my income had reduced at least 4 fold. I have never placed an implant, so have no idea of the profit margin, but at about $10,000 a pop, it is certainly one of the biggest earners in the history of dentistry. Is that a good enough reason to ignore the health of my patients? I never thought so. I couldn’t justify making anyone sick. I still earnt a good income, but never could afford the Rolls or the mansion. I am incredibly happy and sleep very well!
When you look up the holistic dentists and read their web pages, you may find all sorts of great reasons for doing what they do. The ‘really good ones’ usually have lots of videos with gentle and enticing explanations about how good their approach is. It usually starts with; “ … a lot of people have been asking me about ….”, and may include, “…I wish we could be more dogmatic about things like root canals but there are two schools of thought .. ” Sounds reasonable? I call this ‘fence sitting’, which hopefully provides these dentists with the splinters in their backsides that they deserve. Some of the things that I have come across are listed below. My comments are in RED.
“Amalgam removal is always done with a rubber dam and high speed suction.”
Basic Minimum. The protocols for amalgam removal are far more complex.
A dental implant is actually a replacement for the root or roots of a tooth.
A dental implant is a bit of metal or porcelain that is screwed into the bone. It takes the place of an extracted tooth but is NOT a replacement for the root.
“Titanium Implants are the strongest and they integrate with the bone.”
They are strong. They do break. They do not integrate with bone. They merely create condensing osteitis in the bone around the implant, which is a sign of compromised immune function. They all act as antennae for EMF radiation. They all corrode when in contact with fluoride, like from the toothpastes and water supply, and from electric galvanic cells when other metals are in the same mouth. There is never a fibrous seal between the gum and the implant. This area is permanently infected. See the Implants Page Here
“Over 60 years of really good research exists for implants.”
99% of this research is done by the implant manufacturers. Almost all of it looks at mechanical properties only. Health effects are not included.
“Titanium is the gold standard in oral implants because it is biocompatible.”
No! It is a Titanium Standard! Titanium is not biocompatible. They all release titanium into the body. All titanium implants are alloys with other metals. None of these dentists do any form of heavy metal or biocompatible testing first, to see if you are sensitive to the metals in the implant. All Titanium corrodes when exposed to fluoride and galvanic reactions with other metals in the mouth. Titanium is a total disaster in people who have a sensitivity to this metal (and the others in the alloy). See www.melisa.org
“Titanium implants preserve bone.”
Titanium ions actually cause bone to dissolve. This is one of the most common reasons for the failure of implants and the condition called ‘peri-implantitis”. They do NOT preserve bone!
Dental implants have the highest success rate of any implanted surgical device.
According to the FDA in America, dental implants have an incredibly high failure rate. Dental implants are the second most reported device in the history of adverse event reporting, second only to blood glucose tests!
“Root canals are fine if they are done competently by traditional dental standards.”
‘Traditional standards’ are the only way of doing Root canals. There is no competent way of doing a job that has unachievable goals. None of these standards are achievable. Even if the dentists were a holistic endodontist the result is the same! I would also love a definition of ‘FINE‘ in this context.
“We’ll never clear out all of the microbes in your teeth, but we deal with the issue holistically. At the end of the treatment there’s a regeneration of what seems to be healthy bone. So clearly something positive has gone on. We are open to discussion of both sides of the root canal argument.”
All dead teeth, with or without a root canal procedure, remain as toxin factories in your head. The toxins in such a tooth spread to every part of your body. The supposed healing of the bone at the end of the root, is not an indication that the bacteria are gone or that the body is coping with the insult of the toxins emanating from such a tooth. There is no such thing as dealing with these microbes holistically. ‘What seems to be healthy bone’ on an x-ray is NOT healthy bone. X-rays cannot determine ‘healthy bone’! When examined histologically, the bone around ALL root canals and implants is far from healthy and is usually infected with a wide range of bacteria. To understand the correct interpretation of the x-ray picture of a tooth, see Dr Issells Focus on Foci. The only ‘something positive that has gone on’, is that the dentist is richer for supplying you with an expensive toxin factory.
“While the nerve in the tooth is no longer present, the tooth is still sitting in bone and periodontal ligament that is still very much alive.”
This argument defies any medical logic but is precisely the argument of the dental associations. When the ‘nerve’ of the tooth is removed, all the other blood vessels and connective tissue are removed. If the blood supply to any tissue is removed, then that tissue dies. Non-vital, as the periodontists like to call a root canaled tooth, means without life. The suggestion that the tooth is ‘un-dead’ because it is still connected to living tissue, is like suggesting that a dead, gangrenous leg which is still connected to a live person, is still alive. This is the argument of the dental leadership, that actively push the line that a dead root canaled tooth is not dead and cannot do any harm to the rest of the body. It is a completely illogical, un-scientific and stupid statement.
“We always use a rubber dam when doing a root canal therapy.”
This is a basic, almost legal, requirement of any root canal procedure.
“Can you completely sterilize a tooth? The answer is we’re not sure.”
Clearly this person has not read any of the science. There is not one published paper that shows a method that achieves sterility. Professor Abott, the dean of dentistry in Western Australia, admits that “… predictable eradication of bacteria from the root canal still remains an elusive goal…” The British Dental Association in 1996 have admitted that, “It is well known that total sterility of the root canal system is impossible …” Dr Weston Price told the world in 1923 that it is impossible to sterilize a tooth by any known means, except for boiling it for 30 Minutes. All micro-organisms and their toxins will spread to the rest of your body.
The concerns around root canal have been researched and documented over the years but it remains a grey area.
There is no grey area about being unable to sterilize the tooth, the materials which are used are at best toxic and at worst carcinogenic or the simple fact that all root fillings leak substantially. The only grey area is the lack of sound scientific understanding.
“If you are in good health then a Root Canal may have no observable effect.”
It may or it may not. This means nothing. If you are in good health before the root canal, there is no guarantee that your good health will remain after the root canal. It may take years to move from good health to cancer, but that does not eliminate the dead root canaled tooth as a cause. Most likely you would never connect the two. The medical profession certainly don’t. “Observable effects” are never looked at by these dentists.
We call our root canal treatments biological root filling as the technique and materials used are more in line with the biochemistry of the body and are therefore less likely to cause unwanted side effects.
There is no such thing as a Biological Root Filling. All materials used are toxic and never seal the canal. It simply is an impossible dream.
“We refer to a specialist Endodontist if you need a root canal done.”
If the endodontist does the procedure, we can blame him/her when it fails. Whether the root canal is done by a specialist endodontist, or a GP dentist makes no difference. None of the basic requirements of this procedure are achievable. When the RCP is farmed out to the endodontist, the dentist can sit back and do crown and bridgework all day, for a much greater profit without responsibility.
“…diagram shows the branches within the pulp that are almost impossible to clean. We do clean these as best we can.”
TOTAL FABRICATION. It is impossible to access any of these fine branches, or the accessory canals or the inside of the dentine tubules, which make up the bulk of the root structure. They are NEVER cleaned out whatever that is supposed to mean!
“Fluoride in the water is no good, but when applied topically it prevents decay.”
For a dentist, there is no profit to be made from Fluoride in the water. Topical applications do make a profit, do poison the patient and do not stop decay. Fluoride is a schedule 6 poison no matter which way it is applied.
“We define what is correct for you at this time in your life and monitor it in the future. That’s what defines our holistic approach.”
Really? How many people go back to the dentist to treat the cancer that has developed a year or two after the perfect holistic root canal has been done? How does such a dentist define what is best for me at my time of life? Usually the decision is based on my ability to afford their treatments. What monitoring systems are in place? Do I get a phone call every month to see if my health has deteriorated since the root canal was done or the implant placed?
“We determine the best treatment on a case by case analysis. There is no one treatment that fits all. We assess each individual on whether a root canal therapy is going to be beneficial.”
The only determination that I have ever seen, of who can tolerate any of these toxic procedures, is how much money you may be able to give the holistic dentist.
Each tooth is assessed on its own merit taking into account its history, degree of remaining tooth structure, the complexity of root configuration, and most importantly the health and the treatment wishes of the patient.
Remember that is is impossible to achieve any of the goals of a root canal procedure, not matter how much tooth remains or if the canal is perfectly formed. I think they forgot to mention the financial aspect of their decision to ‘save the tooth’.
“Pain free dentistry.”
Isn’t that the basic minimum that would be expected of all dentists?
“The fullness of your lips is determined by the position of your teeth.”
Ask any orthodontist and you will find that the position of your teeth is determined by the muscles of your lips and tongue, which guide the eruption and placement of your teeth.
“Only natural injectables are used to pump up your lips and make you look younger. “
“Botulism is safe if injected into your lips. It gives you nice definition and volumizing effect that you are looking for. We can do this to any part of your face, and we always use local anaesthetic before injecting anything so that there is no pain.”
What happened to aging gracefully and not having toxic foreign substances injected into your body? Are you really looking for this?
“‘Bone in a Bottle’ bone grafts, are a way of replacing missing bone so that an implant can be placed. Very good, very safe.”
… and very expensive and possibly very infected with prions that cause mad cow disease or just act as foreign bodies to cause an autoimmune disease in the future. Avoid all bone grafts.
“We use digital x-rays which don’t give as much radiation.”
Almost all dentists use digital x-rays. This is standard.
“Over-the-counter tooth whitening gels and toothpastes may damage tooth enamel. When you come into the surgery for in-house whitening, you can trust that a professional is looking after you and using trustworthy products from reputable sources.”
ALL tooth whitening products will damage the enamel. The same professional who recommends implants and root canals is the person who is sourcing the same whitening gels that you will buy over the counter. Because it is professional you will pay handsomely for that whiter smile. ALL whitening products cause a massive release of mercury from all amalgam fillings.
“We use drill-less technology”
Drill-less technology was invented about 30 years ago and relies on spreading vast clouds of high preasure sand and aluminium to erode the teeth. Suction systems cannot cope with this volume of tiny particles being spread through the operatory and your lungs.
“We sometimes use fluoride in our practice. We look at each patient as a case-by-case basis.”
They will try to sell you a fluoride treatment unless you are awake enough to reject it.
“We recommend meditation.”
So do I.